Old Town Fort Collins bars launching system to keep troublemakers out

Dec. 11, 2012

Matt Donnelly of Calgary-based Serveall Data Systems installs a camera at the Steakout Saloon in Fort Collins. The camera is part of a system linking six Old Town bars so staff can flag troublemakers and keep them from causing problems. / Trevor Hughes/The Coloradoan

Participating bars

Washington’s Luscious Nectar Steakout Trailhead 100 Octane Tony’s

More

ADVERTISEMENT

Patrons at many Old Town Fort Collins bars on Tuesday night will be receiving a much stricter level of scrutiny.

Six bars are going live with ID scanners and cameras that photograph and record every patron entering, allowing staff to note whether they caused any trouble and have been ejected. The networked system of handheld scanners, cameras and computers permits the linked bars to know if a patron has been “flagged” by another bar for unruly behavior. Then, staff at other bars can decide whether to let them in or not.

The idea is to keep troublemakers from moving from bar to bar and then into Old Town Square late at night.

“A lot of energy went into making sure that a group of big late-night venues came online at once,” said Dawn Nannini with TEAM Fort Collins, which helped acquire the scanners. “Their interest is in protecting their customers.”

The system links the photographs to patrons’ names, also giving bars a record of their efforts to ensure only people of legal drinking age are entering. The system doesn’t record other information, such as a home address or date or birth. It won’t be routinely accessible to anyone but bar staff, and then for only 24 hours. However, anyone who gets flagged will keep being flagged until the bar staff removes it from the system.

“If you pull a weapon out at somebody’s business, you might be banned forever,” Nannini said.

Bar owners, who asked Nannini to speak to the Coloradoan on their behalf, say they want to help create a welcoming, safe environment inside their establishments, and say anyone looking for fights should just go home.

Today, people caught by police violating municipal ordinances such as urinating in public or fighting can be subject to an “exclusion order,” under which they must stay away from an area such as Old Town or Library Park for a year. The scanner system would create even more areas where known troublemakers are barred.

“It’s not likely that these scanners will be used all of the time. The focus will be on weekend nights, when the crowds start coming on. It adds that extra layer of oversight for the bar staff,” Nannini said. “They really want people to come in and feel safe and be safe.”

(Page 2 of 2)

TEAM Fort Collins helps run the Responsible Alcohol Retailers program, and is picking up a year’s worth of operating costs for the scanners that the bar owners bought. Nannini said other bar owners are waiting to decide whether they’ll participate later.

Steakout Saloon co-owner Tim Grabhorn said some bar owners worry the camera systems will scare away customers. But he said responsible bar owners should take reasonable steps to ensure their regular customers are safe, and that minors are being kept out. He said there are a small handful of drinkers who like to cause trouble, and the new system will allow bar owners to better police their own clientele.

Grabhorn said he decided to participate because only bar staff will have routine access to the system, not police officers.

“We can control not just who walks into my door, but what else is going on in Old Town,” Grabhorn said. “So many of our problems are caused by such a small number of people.”